NEW YORK — The New York Times published today a feature about the new team in charge of Playboy’s iconic print magazine, which the newspaper characterizes as aimed at a “woke, millennial" readership.
Penned by the Times’ gender editor Jessica Bennett — whose brief is defined as “working to expand global coverage of women, gender and society across platforms" — the piece is headlined “Will the Millennials Save Playboy?” and surveys the cultural changes that have occurred within the organization since founder Hugh Hefner’s passing.
“Even before the #MeToo movement,” writes Bennett, “there had long been debate over whether a publication with the tag line 'Entertainment for Men' had any place in an equitable world. But when Playboy’s founder, Hugh Hefner, died in 2017, that argument grew louder: Had Mr. Hefner been a forward-thinking voice for sexual liberation and free speech, or a creepy old lech who fostered a culture of misogyny?”
Now, Bennett points out, for the first time in Playboy’s history nobody with the last name Hefner is involved in the decision-making process.
Perhaps the two most insightful paragraphs in Bennett’s story concern the contradiction between the legendary status of the Playboy print product, once the cornerstone of the operation, and its almost vestigial quality in the digital era:
“While the magazine withered, certain aspects of the Playboy brand remained viable business lines. [Ben] Kohn, the chief executive, refers to it as the ‘world of Playboy’: branded spirits, furniture and perfume, fashion collaborations, a casino in London, pop-up events, a recently reopened nightclub in New York and more — especially in China. There, the brand has more than 3,000 stores selling suits, leather goods, luggage and outdoor clothing, Mr. Kohn said.”
“Playboy no longer publishes its financial results, but Mr. Kohn said consumers spend some $3 billion on the company’s products and services each year. Relaunching the magazine, he said, made sense as a kind of ‘brand extension.’ He likened the future of the company to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.”
To read the entire New York Times article about the “woke millennial” period in Playboy magazine history, click here.
